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Pakistan-Afghanistan: Update. US officials told the media today that the main ingredient in most of the homemade bombs that have killed hundreds of American troops in Afghanistan is fertilizer produced by a single company in Pakistan, where the US has been pushing unsuccessfully for greater regulation. Enough calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer for at least 140,000 bombs was legally produced last year by Pakistan's Pakarab Fertilizers Ltd., and then smuggled by militants and their suppliers across the porous border into southern and eastern Afghanistan, according to US officials.

Comment: Today's official statement understates the problem. There are two large Pakistani fertilizer factories that produce ammonium nitrate fertilizer and multiple distributors. According to one US official assessment, 95% of all ammonium nitrate fertilizer imported into Afghanistan is used for bomb making.

Only drug farmers use ammonium nitrate as fertilizer because of its price. Other Afghan farmers generally favor urea-based fertilizers and natural fertilizers because they are much less expensive. Only the Taliban and drug syndicates can afford to pay to have ammonium nitrate smuggled into Afghanistan, in defiance of the official ban on ammonium nitrate imports since 2009. Afghan media routinely report that the banned fertilizer enters Afghanistan from Pakistan at border crossing points in truck convoys without restriction.

Afghanistan produces no ammonium nitrate. Thus the apparently inexhaustible supply of IEDs used by the Taliban, which represent the greatest threat to US forces, originate entirely in Pakistan in two locations. Somehow correcting this situation and eliminating this source of threat do not seem to be a significant tactical challenge for US special operations forces. The question for ten years has been why nothing has been done.

Special comment: Readers need to know that US officials have known these facts for more than ten years and taken no effective action to shut down these factories despite rising loss of American lives. The irresponsible incompetence or outright maliciousness of the Pakistani government and business community contradict Pakistani protests that they are doing everything they can to control insurgency.

The fertilizer plant owners are flagrant war profiteers and should be prosecuted as war criminals. Every intelligence service in the world knows that terrorists use ammonium nitrate, including Pakistani intelligence. The Pakistani Taliban use ammonium nitrate fertilizer in the IEDs they use against Pakistani soldiers and citizens. Incompetent US diplomats involved in stopping the fertilizer plants need administrative sanction and to be replaced.

Destroying the stockpiles and closing the plants would seem to be obvious and easy fixes. However, the Pakistan Army, Incorporated, probably owns the plants. It owns any plants that turn a profit in Pakistan, unless it is owned by the politicians.

TSP is origin of IEDs used in Afghanistan. They could be doing the same in India which is even more porous.

So this explains the source of all the high quality bombs by terrorists in India. Its not Indian fertilizer factories. It could be TSPA owned fertilizer factory output. Gives plausible deniabilty.

Are there press reports of what gets smuggled from TSP and/or imported legally?

"Very soon things will come out. The Anti-Terrorism Squad and crime branch officials have a lot of information and material with them. They also have a fair idea as to which group is behind the blasts but it is not appropriate to reveal the group's name," Parasnis said about the triple blasts probe.

The investigators suspect the role of terror outfit Indian Mujahideen in the blasts and had been probing the case in that direction, police sources said.

The ATS recently arrested two alleged IM operatives Mohammad Haroon and Asrar Tailor in a fake currency case and subjected them to extensive questioning regarding the blasts, they added.

Will the Congress general secretary like to release his next bout of verbal chee-chee?

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh on Saturday said the involvement of radical Hindu outfit Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) cannot be ruled out in the serial blasts that rocked Mumbai city

13/7 destroyed what poverty couldn't. Their dreamsA small sample of the "collateral damage" arising out of GoI's incompetence, gross negligence, politics and policies. Toll as of 1-Oct: 27 killed and more than 140 injured.And yes, in keeping with the Rs. 32 a day calculation, the generous Rs. 2 lakh compensation should see these families through comfortably for at least 10 years if not more.

On July 13, 2011, there was a bomb blast in the diamond market near the Opera House. Two other blasts rocked Zaveri bazaar and Dadar in South and Central Mumbai respectively, in which a total of 27 people lost their lives, and over 130 others were injured.

Satish Singh, 36, is a security guard at the Pancharatna building which houses the diamond market near the Opera House. Hailing from Nimathi village in Darbhanga district of Bihar, Singh studied up to the 12th standard. He has been working here for the past seven years.Singh was on his way home when the bomb exploded on the crowded street that day. He received major injuries in his leg and ears.:Singh looked sad and tired but he has no plans to go back to his village. "When I get well, I'll resume my job. I need to keep that job; I have a five-year-old son and a three-year old daughter".

Pintukumar Yadav is only 20-years-old. He is from Hazaribagh in Jharkhand, and came to Mumbai two years back."I used to sell sandwiches near the place where the bomb exploded".He could hardly speak, as he was in so much pain. He was very thin, emaciated; his ribs were visible on his chest. He lost one leg in the blast and his other leg was broken. The broken leg has been put back together and is now plastered. But he does not look like he has the strength to recover.Imagine the dreams this teenager had when he came to the maximum city. Two years later they lie shattered like his bones, in a city where he has no one to call his own. "I have no one, the cops brought me here. I do not know how long I will be here," he said softlyYadav married Taari Devi 18 months ago and they have a six-month-old son Sunil. "She knows I am injured. She has not come to meet me," he looked baffled and confused. His wife and child were in his village after marriage."Once I get well I will go back to my village, my mother is crying for me, my dad is here with me" he said.News from his village has added to his woes. His wife has left him with their son. "She said she is not interested in staying married to me," he said.

Ghulup Narayan Namdeo belongs to Raigadh district in Maharashtra. He has studied up to the 6th standard.:"I was just standing on the road when the bomb exploded. I don't know what happened. I lost both my legs there. I did not even know that at that time. The cops brought me here.":His wife Nikita was with him in hospital. She is an uneducated lady and looked totally lost in the situation that they were in.They have three sons, 11, 8, and a 5 years old. While the eldest is in their village, the others are studying in Mumbai.Ghulup has a younger brother working in Mumbai. "I have to do something after I get out of hospital. I have a wife and three kids to look after," he says. But he has no idea what he is going to do.

Bhuwad Sahadev Mahadev, 56, has spent 41 years in Mumbai. He belongs to Khanghar in Raigadh district. He used to work in a diamond merchant's office in Mumbai. Now he is a small broker.On that fateful day Mahadev had attended a satsang from 3 to 4 pm. He had come back and was just standing on the road when the blast took place. He lost one leg and severely injured his back.

United States Senator Mark Warner, the democratic co-chair of the Senate India [ Images ] Caucus, said Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh [ Images ] and India's restraint in the face of continuing terrorist attacks is nothing short of remarkable and keeping with the best traditions of India.

In a question and answer session that followed his kick-off address to the third Brookings- Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Strategic Dialogue on US-India relations, he responded to the recent allegations of Pakistan-based Inter-Services Intelligence-supported terrorist groups attacking American troops and targets in India. "The Indian government in light of some of the not one, but multiple acts of aggression has acted with a level of restraint and class that is commensurate with the best traditions of India," he said.

Amirkhans can talk. What goes of their father's? So shall we say MMS is now one step closer to 'Noble piece price'.

Vashishtha wrote:How the ****** is 'showing restraint' against terrorist mofckers a good thing?

We must work with Pakistan. Not against it. Some of the highest people in the USA are saying that and the US can't be wrong. Recall that they took two countries in exchange for two buildings. That is why they are winning while we keep Kasab and Afzal guru alive.